At Home with Polly and Henry

Abstract

This essay addresses the question: what distinguished the popular Drew comedies (1915–1919)? First, in what essentially were situation comedies, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew played a white middle-class couple who squabbled over issues or disagreements, usually minor but sometimes not, that were resolved through deft deceptions. Second, and most important, not only was Mrs. Drew (1890–1925) an accomplished comedienne, but she also scripted all of the films, directed or codirected nearly as many, and eventually became a producer. While on screen she may have played a seemingly conventional wife (but not always), behind the scenes she created stories that poked gentle fun at white middle-class domestic life and often challenged, however lightly transgressive, the prevailing patriarchy of the period.